Frittering the day away ~

Today was one of those rare days when I have done nothing productive, as in physically accomplishing anything, but it has been a good day. I will just have to hustle tomorrow to get some things done before the work week starts once again.

I started the day by sleeping in. Oh, that felt good. Then it was the typical personal morning routine, feeding and walking Loocie and Marvin, and then off to an outdoor fall antique/craft show. It was the 40th year for the show held in Birmingham, Ohio, and from what a dealer/acquaintance told me, the largest to date with 178 vendors. The weather was chilly, overcast and threatening rain. Thankfully the rain held off and even the threat of a storm did not deter people. Several of the vendors that I knew said even though the crowd was heavy, sales were not too good.

My big purchase of the day was this sled. I think I will be using it on the dining room table during the holidays. I don't know from when it dates, but I know it has "age". Does anyone have a clue to its age? My guess would be early 1900's.

This is my bargain of the day. I have a large number of cookie cutters ~ somewhere in the attic ~ but I could not resist this one for $1.00.
I bought some gourds and mini pumpkins. I was really bummed because I bought 3 gourds that were long and thin like a banana and would have looked really cool once dried, and somehow I lost them. I'm thinking on the way to the car I must have dropped the bag. Darn :(
The gourds and pumpkins are in this carrier with the most wonderful patina and a heart cut-out that I purchased in eastern Pennsylvania about 25 years ago. The ghost and pumpkin is an import that I purchased at the craft store today. They also had some big ones that I loved, but I didn't have fifty or a hundred dollars to spare on a Halloween decoration...teehee.

A close-up of the heart.

Here's Loocie (fawn), my "personal pug" and Marvin (black), my foster. This is the first time I have seen them lay together and luckily the camera was handy. (Don't you just love my green floor??? There is hardwood underneath several layers of linoleum that one day I will expose.)

After coming home from the show, my grandson Jake came over and we had some quality time. I planned on having him home by 6 so I could get something done, but by the time we played pirate, policeman (he loves to handcuff me!), played with his Geo-Trax train, visited great-grandma, and ate, it was 8 by the time I got home. (If you need a gift for a young boy, Geo-Trax is THE BEST ~ this has been a favorite of his for 2+ years. You can buy it on sale and have a coupon from Kohl's and it is very reasonably priced.)

Have you ever wondered what people put on dried gourds to give it that very mellow, opaque type color? I thought maybe it was shoe polish, but what gives it that really great color is leather dye from Tandy. Now I'm not sure where to purchase it, but I'm sure it can be found online if I ever have the inclination to finish off all the dried gourds that I have.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Pug hugs :)

Lauren

Musings of a junkie ~

Welcome everyone. Thank you for dropping by. I hope all is well in your little corner of the world!

Fall has arrived in northern Ohio. The last few days haven't been too pleasant. High winds and rain (though we did need the rain) and very cool temperatures. We have gotten down in the low 40's a couple of nights. BBBRRRRR!!!! I've resisted turning the furnace on so far this fall. It seems as if I'm giving up on warm temps when I do...LOL! I must confess, though, I do have a small electric heater next to me and at night I can crank up the electric blanket. This morning I was lucky because just when it was time to get out of bed, I was having a hot flash so the house didn't feel chilly at all!

Okay. I must confess. I'm a magazine junkie ;-) I get way too many and have a hard time keeping up. These three help feed my need to create. I don't know that I've every used one of the patterns from any of these, but I do enjoy browsing through them.

I've been subscribing to Better Homes and Gardens for many, many years and it is one of my favorites. I hadn't gotten Woman's Day or Family Circle for years, but I got a subscription offer I couldn't refuse.
Just recently I let my subscription to LHJ lapse, but it was substituted for one of the magazines that is no longer being published.

My DSO passes along This Old House to me. All the others are ones I subscribe to.

I think I've been getting Country Living since 1984. I don't think it's nearly as good as it used to be, but hey, it's tradition to browse through it every month.

I do miss Country Home. I was sorry when it ceased production. Same goes for Cottage Living.

I do hope all of you have a fun-filled weekend finding time to do what is important to you.

Pug hugs :)

Lauren

A collection of feather edge ~

Feather edge (also known simply as Leeds or shell-edge) was my first real antiques passion. I began collecting it about 25 years ago and it remains my largest collection. It was made in the Leeds area of England from approximately 1775 through the 1860's. Many of my better pieces were purchased from Lisa McAllister, long before the advent of the internet. She is the author of a book about feather edge. Blue is by far the most common color, followed by green and red. I believe it can also be found in yellow, black and brown. All my pieces are blue except for one piece in green.

There is a very informative article about feather edge in the August 2009 issue of Early American Life, though they refer to it as shell-edge and state that the term feather edge is a misnomer.

Below is the cupboard in my dining room.

A close-up of pepper pots and a highly decorated plate.
Clam shell bowl.

The lid of a tureen with a beautiful rose finial and hand painted "onions" encircling it.

Another tureen lid, also with a rose. I do not have the base to either of these pieces.

A small leaf dish.

One of my favorite plates.

I love the "onions" painted on this plate, the same design as on the tureen lid. I also have a set of matching platters with this design.

My corner cupboard in the living room housing more of my collection.

This large tureen (also with a rose finial) is by far my most valuable piece of feather edge. It is in mint condition.

Another plate...

...and a close-up of the detail.

A small reticulated platter.

Many of the pieces in my collection have cracks and chips, but if I was that old, I'd have cracks and chips, too. Heck, I'm not nearly that old and feel I am "cracked"!

Thank you for stopping by to view my collection!

Pug hugs :)

Lauren

Tongue troubles ~

WELCOME!
I thought my penny tongues came out good (a little off center, but that's ok) and would be perfect on my cat mat. This is my first penny rug and I wanted it to be exceptional. HA!

I had some trouble with the blanket stitch when I had a 90 degree turn. Some came out okay, others not. I finally got everything done except attaching the tongues and sewing on the back. That is when the real troubles began. Mistake number one was not being precise enough when cutting the back to fit the front. So I'm a little off. No big deal. Right? WRONG! That and the fact that I am trying to blanket stitch through six layers of wool. What a disaster. The first attempt was so bad it looked like my four year old grandson was doing it for me. I tore that out and started over. The second was no better, so I took the cowardly way out and gave up and decided my little rug didn't really need tongues after all! (Maybe I'll try making a little candle mat with my leftover tongues.)
Here it is all done...

...and a close up.

Speaking of my grandson, I picked him up after work today. I took him to visit his great grandma (my mom). Then we came home, got Marvin and walked over to the school playground. Jake has turned into a real magpie and doesn't stay still for a minute. It's hard to get a good picture of him. He has the most wonderful red hair that I'm sure he will learn to hate!

Being the typical boy, he must go UP the slide.

Hanging like a monkey.

Thank you for dropping in. I hope your weekend is off to a great start!

Pug hugs :)

Lauren

My new swing ~ ~ ~

What do you think? Don't you just love it???

My older son that lives in Las Vegas sent me this photo. I always told my boys there are certain rules of decorum one must follow when living in a house or apartment, and the #1 rule is no indoor upholstered pieces or appliances are allowed on porches or balconies. I guess hanging from a tree is okay?

Pug hugs :)

Lauren

The weekend CAN'T be over ~

Aren't these the most beautiful hanging baskets? They are all around the square in Oberlin, Ohio. I have absolutely no luck with sweet potato vine. For this late in the season, I can't believe how lush they still are.

Oh, weekends just fly by too quickly. Saturday was a little crazy. I was dropping my foster, Marvin, at a dog event while I headed to Malabar Farm for the "In the Spirit of Friends" show. It was a perfect day for an outdoor show. I was supposed to drop Marvin off at 9:30, then it was 10:00, then got pushed back to almost 10:30. So my bud Belinda and I head off to Malabar ~ over an hour away. Well, with the detour we had it was WAY more than an hour. The show was wonderful, but I felt so rushed I really didn't have time to enjoy it. There were some wonderful primitive crafts, great antiques, and LOTS of hooked rugs for sale, along with some gorgeous wool for sale by Alice at Folk Art Primitives and the Ault's.

I had the pleasure of meeting Bobbie from Union Star Primitives (and the Evening Stitcher), Julie from Plum Run Creek and Sherry, from Sherry's Heart. I ran into a few of my hookin' buddies. You can see their picture over at Julie's blog.

I was just too good! I guess it's because I'm still trying to pay for my Townsend cutter (which I absolutely LOVE!!!), so the only thing I bought was some brown wool Alice dyed for me for a rug I'll be making for a Christmas present. Bobbie had the most wonderful small cupboard ~ not antique but made to look old ~ even had square nails. I'm sort of kicking myself for not buying it.

I got back to Oberlin to the dog event 45 minutes before it was over. Oh, yeah. We took a different route home and had another detour and then missed the state route we wanted. Not a good day for driving. I think they thought I wasn't coming back for Marvin...lol! I'm hoping someone met Marvin and fell in love with him. We haven't had too many "issues" lately, but he still does growl at me on occasion ~ so un-pug like!

Today, I took my Mom to a luncheon for a Slovenian lodge she belongs to. Her very small ethnic church is closing, along with a half dozen others in the city. Very sad. I did get lucky though and won the 50/50 raffle, so I have another $78.00 towards my Townsend ;-)

The rest of the day was spent playing catch-up, doing my Mom's laundry, and all those other mundane tasks that need to be done. As usual, the cleaning fairy skipped my house!

For those of you who have asked about Frannie, I got an email from her new mom and she said Frannie is doing great and they love her to pieces. Hooray for Frannie!!!

Thank you all for stopping by. Please come again soon.

Pug hugs :)

Lauren

Got-R-Done

Welcome everyone. Fall is definitely in the air. The nights here on Ohio's north coast are very crisp ~ perfect sleeping weather ~ and the days are pleasantly warm and sunny. Oh, I love it!

I thought I would share a few of my finishes with you. The little pug mat was hooked a few months ago...now it has binding.

I've also been playing catch up with the punch needle pieces I've finished in the past. This is a Lori Brechlin design. I think I punched it back in 2007.
A little bunny I also finished back in 2007. I guess I like that blue background!

Another Lori Brechlin design. For punch needle, this is huge. It's about 7 3/8' x 9 1/2'. This too, was punched a year or two ago.

And finally ~ ~ ~ my cat rug that took me 5 months to hook, though I also hooked the pug rug and a few punch needle pieces while working on this. It is by far my largest rug to date. It measures 21" x 33". The cats are from a Polly Minnick book and the background is my adaptation of the antique cats rug. The colors of the first picture are quite accurate. Now I just have to think about steaming and binding it. YUCK!

As you've probably figured, I enjoy the hooking and punching part, but really don't like the finishing. I am now all caught up finishing my punch needle and hooking projects. That feels good and will hopefully inspire me to get busy finishing the cats. It will have a place of honor in front of my antique corner cupboard. I also started to work on the cat penny rug again. It shouldn't take long to finish if I set my mind to it.

The weekend ahead looks beautiful so please enjoy it. Tomorrow there is a new craft/antique show at Malabar Farm in Ohio ~ a first time show but with high quality vendors. I need to shop quickly because I'm also working the Oberlin Doggie Do for Ohio Pug Rescue. Maybe Marvin will find his forever home.

Pug hugs :)

Lauren